I’ve been making some large quilts lately. My inclination is that this next design would be outstanding large but I decided for a first run on this new design, I would go small. This art quilt is just about 20″ square. My technique for this quilt started with a background of pastels, pieced as fairly large pieces. Next I cut all the curved pieces for the entire quilt and laid out the design, overlapping and layering until I had the final effect I wanted. Clearly there is depth to this quilt from the layering and more than just two layers as was true in my rug inspired art quilt earlier. I love the Kaffe Faussett print prominant in the front! Other fabrics I selected for variety and just fun and silliness, like the two pieces of yellow polka dots. I take many photos with my iphone so I can make the design I want. When I finished it felt like SPRING so that was the name I gave it.
I found that even though I had all my curved pieces cut out before I started piecing into and onto the pastel background, I made some minor trims on some pieces, often making them a bit thinner in width so other colors showed through the way I liked. Somedays I wish I could make patterns so reproducing designs would be easier. This one I had some templates of different curves as a starting point but I found myself modifying the template cuts as I went along. Variety and movement plus thinking about how the layering will end up, guided my design.